For Thanksgiving Debbi and I went over to our friends Chad & Camille’s house, bringing Domino so he could play with their dogs.
There was actually a fair amount of prep involved: Camille was making the main dish and hors d’ouevres, but we bought the sides: Debbi made 10 pounds (!!) of mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon and maple syrup, and an apple pie, as well as bringing a pumpkin pie. I decided to try making a beet salad, with candied pecans. I also brought the makings of Aviation cocktails, since Chad and I are both gin drinkers. So Wednesday was mostly a day of cooking and baking at our house (followed by comic book night, of course).
Thursday morning I also convinced Debbi to give me a haircut, as it was getting uncomfortably long for me.
We’re having unseasonably warm weather this month – it’s cracked 70°F a few days this week. I almost wore shorts! The four of us and their kids H & D played games outside for a while before settling back to munch and chat. And that’s pretty much how the day went – other than revving up the dogs from time to time – through dinner, until we all collapsed in food comas. (And it got cold enough after sundown that I was glad I didn’t wear shorts.) The short ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. I put a little too much dressing on the salad but otherwise it turned out great.
Debbi and I have been doing Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves for quite a few years so this was a really nice change of pace.
I love making short ribs, oxtails, lamb shanks, all the slow-cook meaty things, and I recently have been testing these recipes in a pressure cooker. Fall-apart unctuousness in 40 minutes, plus 15 to release the steam! Try it with a cheapo stovetop cooker. Also N.O. red beans with ham hocks.
Love the Aviation.